Roles of Knowledge Diffusion, Emotional Intelligence, and Locus of Control in Facilitating Incremental Innovation Among Middle Managers: An Empirical Investigation
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The George B. Delaplaine, Jr. School of Business
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Business Administration
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
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Abstract
The main purpose of this study is to examine middle manager influence on incremental innovation from the standpoint of organizational knowledge diffusion and personality. Middle management plays an important role in fueling innovation, which is required to maintain or gain market share. In this cross-sectional study, a customized survey was administered to a convenience sample of managers. Hierarchical regression was used to test several hypotheses regarding middle manager influence on incremental innovation. The following findings suggest that middle managers play an important role in influencing incremental innovation. Middle managers’ emotional intelligence and locus of control influence incremental innovation. Among the personality variables, emotional intelligence influences incremental innovation to a larger extent. Organizational knowledge diffusion, as perceived by middle management, influences incremental innovation more than the tested personality factors. In this study, emotional intelligence and organizational knowledge diffusion accounted for over half of the variance of incremental innovation. The role of middle managers’ emotional intelligence and organizational knowledge diffusion on influencing incremental innovation adds a measure of breadth and perspective to the current literature. The results of this study should inform business leaders of the importance of the role of personality and knowledge sharing on incremental innovation.